Customer Reviews

Jazz Guitar Single Note Soloing, Volume 1

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I studied with Ted Greene in the early 70's at the age of eighteen. At the time I was also taking lessons with George Van Eps and shared my lesson materials with Ted while he worked on Chord Chemistry, the first of his books which was originally published in the 70's and revised later. Any electric guitarist should have all of his books period! These are not fancy riffs or solos but the most creative and best organized series of works on jazz guitar ever written. Most think of Ted as a finger style jazz player. However, when I jammed with him there was no one faster or smoother with a single note flat pick. He simply didn't go in for flash. Also, he could outplay anyone in any style, rock, folk, country, and yes classical music. In fact, when I knew him he always carried a copy of the Bach Chorales around which he studied to perfect his chord voicing system. If you are serious about the guitar and play at the intermediate or better level you have to learn this material.

Ted Greene's marvelous books have become staples in guitar instruction, starting with the famous "Chord Chemistry" (Ted frequently referred to the book as "Chord Catastrophe").

"Single Note Soloing, Volume 1" is the perfect book for those that are interested in jazz and have experience playing the guitar, but want to learn the ins and outs of jazz phrasing. The musical examples in this book (all in notation, no TAB here) are great and Ted's comments include a wealth of information about left and right hand tips, phrasing ideas, and how to use the examples. A pleasant "side effect" of going through this book is your sight-reading will noticably improve, especially in the higher positions (such as the 7th, 8th, and 9th). And for those who might already know the theory involved, it makes a for a great warmup and provides a refresher course in important fundamentals. Even though I knew most of the theory in the book when I first went through it, it was a great learning experience because it filled up the holes in my knowledge, some that I didn't even know were there. That is part of the greatness of Ted Greene. Never does the book have a pretentious or snobby air to it, and his thoughts are always encouraging and inspiring when you read them. Many guitar books create more holes than fill them, because the authors themselves do not have the needed grasp of the fundamentals. There's no need to worry about that here, as Ted was a master at learning (and therefore, teaching) things the right way.

Overall this has to be one of the best books on the subject that I've gone through, especially for a book that is guitar-specific. If you could only choose one book on jazz scales for guitar, choose this one.

There are several scales patterns per chord pattern or chord strummed. Actually, you only need to learn one scale pattern. Ted Greene provides you with at least one scale per chord to solo over. What's interesting is learning how to combine four or five scale patterns so you can play up and down the neck (over one chord). This book will provide you with all the elements needed to solo over most chords. I already had an idea of what to play, but I didn't have information on the many arpeggios you could play over each chord. Ted gives you sample arpeggios to play over each chord through several scale patterns. What I like about this book is knowing you can link four patterns together (over one chord) and play up and down the neck. If you're having problems with your solos, buy this book.

I learned so much from this book. It didn't make me a great soloist but I improved and I understand how to create lines. I am not aware of any instructional resource for guitar that does that as well as this book. Plus the lines are great !

I know the name suggests that it's about single note soloing, and hey...it is! This book is fantastic. All of Ted Greene's books are just great at explaining so many of the common things in Jazz guitar playing. Very clear, very unique, great way of displaying all of the information. The problem with this book is, it's all in staff, so if you only read tab, I'd advise against this!

If you don't have a foundation in the basics of music theory and some playing experience go find a good teacher and work your up to and through these books. These books are jazz based but everything in them can be applied to any other style. Totally worth the effort.

I strongly disagree with the people saying you need to read music for this book.

I went through this book without a strong reading knowlege, and skipped most of the prescribed examples.

What I did was learn the music theory in the intro about how chords are built from scales (ABSOLUTELY NEEDED FOR ANY PLAYER) which are explained in a very simple easy to understand way.

I also learned the chord shapes along with the arpeggios (ALL IN TAB) This alone made me a 10x better player than I was before I read it.

I have all of his books now, and I still don't read music. I know all kinds of scales chords and arpeggios and I UNDERSTAND the THEORY BEHIND IT.

Reading music is nice, but it is not neccesary to be a schooled musician.

This is one of four published guitar books by Ted Greene. Ted was one of the Great guitarists and a superior teacher. This volume is extremely good. Anything by Ted Greene is required reading.